Talk:Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge

Rock Climbing
Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge is home to an area (which will remain un-named out of respect for their judgement) of supreme sandstone... which is ideal for the more technical disciplines of rock climbing, however, technical and/or freestyle rock climbing have been banned from CONWR. This is a huge blow to the climbing community - the stone in CONWR was among the most solid, and safest in the area. (it was a beginner-intermediate area) In addition - the impact of the climbers was FAR LESS than the impact of the guys who go and fish off the spillway, leaving beer cans and fishing lines all over. In fact all the climbers I've been with have endeavored to clean up as they went along. I personally have been harassed by officers in the CONWR for doing little more than walking those trails now.

Also of relevance here is the use of the CONWR in past decades - the heavy contamination, the cleanup efforts, and the corporations who currently operate within the boundaries and what they do. i.e. General Dynamics. Those operations and their authority and impact within the Refuge are huge.

Midnite42 14:03, 11 October 2007 (UTC)